Definition of Adultery

Adultery is the voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with a person other than the offender's husband or wife. Civil Co.de Cal. § 93; 1 Bish. Mar. & Div. § 703; Co.ok v. State, 11 Ga. 53, 56 Am. Dec. 410; State v. Mahan, 81 Iowa, 121, 46 N. W. 855; Banks v. State, 96 Ala. 78, 11 South. 404. Adultery Is the unlawful voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with one of the opposite sex, and when the crime is committed between parties, only one of whom is married, both are guilty of adultery. Pen. Code Dak. § 333. It is to be observed, however, that in some of the states it is held that this crime is committed only when the woman is married to a third person, and the unlawful commerce of a married man with an unmarried woman is not of the grade of adultery. In some jurisdictions, also, a distinction is made between double and single adultery, the former being committed where bath parties are married to other persons, the latter where one only is so married. State v. Fellows, 50 Wis. 65, 6 N. W. 239; State v. Searle. 56 Vt. 516; State v. Lash, 16 N. J. Law, 380, 32 Am. Dec. 397 ; Hood v. State, 56 Ind. 263, 26 Am. Rep. 21; State v. Connoway, Tapp. (Ohio) 90; State v. Weatherby, 43 Me. 258, 69 Am. Dec. 59 ; Hunter v. U. S., 1 Pin. (Wis.) 91, 39 Am. Dec. 277.